Ship s abmor



E. CAVICCHI.

SHIP'S ARMOR.

APPLICATION FILED APR-14,1917.

Patented Sept. 30, 1919.

Inventor. Ercole Cavicchi W 8am .YZWMJ ATTys.

ERCOLE CAVICCI-II, OF QUINCY, MASSACHUSETTS.

SHIPS ARMOR.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Sept. 30, 1919.

Application filed April 14; 1917. Serial No. 162,028.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EnooLn GAVICCHI, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Quincy, county of Norfolk, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Ships Armor, of which the following description, in connection with the accom panying drawing, is a specification, like characters on the drawing representing like parts.

This invention relates to improvements in ships armor and the principal object thereof is to provide means which will prevent eifective action of a torpedo which is launched against the ship.

Another object of the invention is to provide a means of the character above described which may be readily adapted to any ship and which can be applied quickly and effectively without modification of the ships hull.

Another object of the invention is to provide a means of the character described which will not lessen the speed of the ship.

These objects are accomplished in the pre ferred embodiment of the invention illustrated herein by providing a series of relatively wide steel plates bent back upon themselves to present outwardly extending faces inclined to one another and terminating in a sharp angle, the other edges of said plates being flanged and secured to the hull of the ship. These plates are so disposed as to be parallel and to lie in planes parallel to the horizontal plane in which the hull of the ship normally moves so as neither to cause a raising or lowering of the ship in the water, but it will be understood that such other dispositions may be made as to form an attachment of these plates as may be found desirable within the meaning and scope of the annexed claims.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which,

Figure l is a conventional illustration of a ships hull with the invention applied thereto,

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional View on lines 22 Fig. 1, and,

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail sectional View of a portion of the side of the hull of the ship showing the arrangement of the protecting plates and the manner in which the same are secured thereto.

As ilinstratcdin the drawing the hull 1.

has the usual substantially vertical sides 2,

3 and bottom 4, the sides 2, 3 merging into the bottom through curved sections 5 and 6.

When torpedoes or other projectiles are launched against the ship below the water line their progress is relatively slow but a sufficient shock is produced when the projectile strikes the fiat side of the ship to detonate the explosive material carried by the torpedo.

WVhen however, the projectile strikes a curved portion such as 5 and 6 or the curved portion of the bow or stern it is very likely to be deflected without injury to the vessel, particularly when the vessel is moving rapidly through the water.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide a means which will protect the vertical sides of the ship from injury either by deflecting the projectile or torpedo or by arresting it before its nose, which contains the firing pin, touches the hull of the vessel.

This is accomplished as illustrated in the accompanying drawings by providing a series of longitudinally disposed steel plates which are folded back upon themselves to present sharp angular edges 7 the sides 8, 9 of said plates diverging from said edges and being connected to the sides of the hull in any suitable manner. A convenient means which is shown herein consists, in bending the free edges of the plate to form flanges '10, 11 (see Fig. 3), which may be secured by suitable bolts 12 to the ships side.

In securing a parallel series of plates of this character to the sides of the ships hull a vertical series of recesses are in effect provided which converge from the points 7 toward the ships side. These plates are of suflicient breadth to extend to a considerable distance from the ships side and the angular position of the sides 8, 9 of the plates and the spacing apart of the successive plates such as to prevent the entry of a projectile of the size of a torpedo to reach the ships hull. The ends 7 of the plates however preferably are spaced a suflicient distance apart to permit the nose of the torpedo to enter a short distance between them.

These plates may be of any desirable thickness or width and preferably are formedof rolled steel having a hi hmodulus of elasticity. These plates deslrably are in as long sectiefis' as can convenientl be formed, the sections being riveted together at their adjacent ends when neces sary to form substantially continuous plates extending either the full length of the ship as illustrated in Fig. 1 or throughout the straight portion between the pointed bow and the curved stern.

By reason of the fact that these plates are disposed in substantial parallelism with the longitudinal horizontal axis of the ship no effective resistance to the movement of the ship is offered. The plates, however, by thus extending laterally from the sides of the ship add stability to it.

' If a torpedo is discharged toward the ship when the ship is in motion its end will probably be engaged between two of the adjacent plates at points diametrically opposite. The plates will form a sort of pivot about which the torpedo will be rotated by the movement of the ship until its direction is changed substantially into parallelism with that of the ship, of if the projectile strikes head on and enters in between the plates the converging plates will impede and stop the movement of the torpedo before its firing pin or war head reaches the side of the vessel, thus either preventing the firing of the torpedo or causing it to explode at a distance from the hull so that the water cushion between the torpedo and the hull will minimize its eflect.

If by chance the end of the torpedo strikes the narrow edge 7 of one of the plates and is thereby caused to explode the cushion of water which intervenes between the torpedo and the side of the hull will soften the force of the blow so that it will not be liable to fracture the ships side but at most resulting in bending the plates of the hull. The

longitudinally extending plates act as trusses to strengthen the sides of the hull and also serve to distribute the force of the explosion over such a wide area as to prevent breaching of the hull.

It will be understood that the embodiment of the invention disclosed herein is illustrative and is not restrictive and that various modifications may be made within the spirit and scope of the following claims.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In combination with a ships hull a series of laterally projecting plates extending longitudinally of the hull and parallel to the horizontal axis of the hull narrowly spaced apart, the open horizontally extendingspace between said plates convergingtoward the ships side adapted to engage and deflect or arrest the movement of a torpedo or other projectile before the same reaches the ships side.

2. In combination with a ships hull a series of narrowly spaced steel plates extending outwardly from said hull and longitudinally thereof and folded centrally to present parallel V-shaped outer edges, the inner edges of said plates being secured to the side of the ships hull.

3. In combination with a ships hull a series of narrowly spaced steel plates extending outwardly from said hull and longitudinally thereof and folded centrally to present parallel V-shaped outer edges, the inner edges of said plates having flanges secured to the side of the ships hull.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification.

ERCOLE CAVICCHI.

copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, I). C. 

